Center for Justice and Peacebuilding

When her 20-year-old grandson was murdered, long-time victim advocate Pamela Leonard, MA ’06 (conflict transformation), found herself suddenly in a new role. What she learned has strengthened her zeal for criminal justice reform. To read more about Eastern Mennonite University alumni involved in law, check out the summer issue of ...More

This summer, four Eastern Mennonite University undergraduate students worked at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute, spending six weeks acting as hosts and ambassadors for approximately 145 international visitors.
They were often the first on campus to greet weary travelers arriving from the airport in the wee hours of the night, and they were int ...More

Like most children, Winifred Gray-Johnson didn’t pay much attention to what her father did for a living. She knew he often traveled from their home in Monrovia, Liberia, to the United States. She knew he occasionally visited a place in Virginia called Eastern Mennonite University.
But she never imagined her father’s participation in the 2009 Summ ...More

Lassana Kanneh is healing.
In 1999, along with more than 20,000 Liberian children, 11-year-old Lassana became a soldier. He was kidnapped and forced to use drugs and alcohol, destroy property, and kill in the Second Liberian Civil War from 1999 to 2003.
Now, he seeks peace for himself and his community in Liberia – a long road that has taken him to journa ...More

Aspiring peacebuilder Sujan Rai arrived at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute a week late; she almost didn’t make it to Eastern Mennonite University at all. The delay: two massive earthquakes that hit her city of Kathmandu, Nepal in April.
Rai and her family were among the lucky few who experienced no loss of life or property damage. St ...More

With the complex concepts of forgiveness and healing at the forefront in recent media coverage of the Charleston church shooting, Eastern Mennonite University professors Howard Zehr, PhD, and Carl S. Stauffer, PhD, co-directors of the Z ...More

Last week, first lady Michelle Obama, with her daughters and mother, visited London to announce a new partnership between the US and British governments to support girls’ education and empowerment.
That’s not the only partnership the White House has lately touted. In early March, the president and first lady launched “Let G ...More

How can peacebuilders engage with the police and military in pursuing peace? And how can police and the military engage with peacebuilders? That was the topic of a luncheon presentation by experts from Pakistan, the Philippines and Guatemala at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) during the Summer Peacebuilding Institute.
“Peace activists tend t ...More